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Forum:Add links pointing directly to MLN?
Apologies for the long post. But I think this is a good question: This is a unique wiki, referring in all cases to items on My Lego Network. I think we need to clearly define how directly and how often wiki pages should link to MLN. I know that more links directly to MLN could be very helpful to wiki users. Let me get directly to two specific examples of my issue: The page for Old Capt Joe links to the Coast Guard Game wiki page. But it never links to the actual game on MLN. And even the Coast Guard Game wiki page only says, "The Coast Guard Game is a game under LEGO CITY." To all of you experts, understanding what that means is second nature. But for beginners, it can be very hard to navigate to the Coast Guard Game. The three buttons and changing (contextual) sets of tabs at the top of every page can be very confusing. I do understand that the Lego company would like MLN members to explore the entire Lego site, but I think getting lost is a real issue. When I was an early user, I tried for almost two weeks to find the Star Justice Deputy Badge. Couldn't find the right page. I tried again just now, and I now I'll ask any of you to try to follow the directions on the Star Justice Deputy Badge wiki page (exactly) and end up in the correct place. (I do find the category "Space" in the pull-down menu, but after that, no "space battle gallery") (And remember to come back to respond to this posting.) I cannot find it still. If the description does work for you, please try to figure out where I stepped off the path, and clarify the directions. Don't just tell me I'm wrong. (Don't clarify for me, here; I don't need it. Work on fixing the directions if you have time.) If you can make the above directions work, I still think direct links might be best. First, the lengthy description of how to get to something on MLN is wordy. Second, if a location on MLN changes, we can just update the hyperlink in the wiki, instead of trying to figure out which part of the long description is wrong. Why not hyperlink? Because we want to make users "work for it?" It that is true, then why have a wiki at all? How did I eventually find the page awarding the Star Justice Deputy Badge? I followed an exact link, probably the short, almost hidden one on the Deputy Badge wiki page. I didn't see that link last time I visited. I like that it's almost hidden, but not calling it out more clearly could also make for more frustration for users. I think more direct links to MLN pages referred to in the wiki could be very helpful. If everyone agrees, then I'd like to discuss how to best call them out, so that people clicking a wiki link would know when they are going to visit another wiki page as opposed to going to a MLN page. I see that a little "external link" icon is used on the Deputy Badge link, which is good but maybe not enough. We could follow wikipedia's example of having links at the page bottom under a category like "external links" but instead it would say "direct Lego Network links" 22:27, 30 April 2009 (UTC) I do see now that Old Capt Joe has an external link to his MLN page right there in his "badge" area of his wiki page. My apologies for not seeing it before. However, the Coast Guard Game wiki page doesn't have a link, and I think it might benefit users to have "external" Lego.com links right in the text rather than in that graphics area (increase usability). What do you think? Thanks! 23:08, 30 April 2009 (UTC) :You didn't miss the link on Old Capt Joe's page, it was missing. I fixed that today. Sorry about that. :) :As for your other comments I would be all for providing more MLN links in the wiki. I too found a direct link to the Factory page with Capt Reynolds picture. You could even argue that more links actually get users back to the LEGO site and off of this wiki. 23:57, 30 April 2009 (UTC)